Section 1

1. Those enquiring whence Evil enters into beings, or rather
into a certain order of beings, would be making the best beginning
if they established, first of all, what precisely Evil is, what
constitutes its Nature. At once we should know whence it comes,
where it has its native seat and where it is present merely as an
accident; and there would be no further question as to whether it
has Authentic-Existence.

But a difficulty arises. By what faculty in us could we possibly
know Evil?

All knowing comes by likeness. The Intellectual-Principle and
the Soul, being Ideal-Forms, would know Ideal-Forms and would have a
natural tendency towards them; but who could imagine Evil to be an
Ideal-Form, seeing that it manifests itself as the very absence of
Good?

If the solution is that the one act of knowing covers
contraries, and that as Evil is the contrary to Good the one
act would
grasp Good and Evil together, then to know Evil there must be first
a clear perception and understanding of Good, since the nobler
existences precede the baser and are Ideal-Forms while the less good
hold no such standing, are nearer to Non-Being.

No doubt there is a question in what precise way Good is
contrary to Evil- whether it is as First-Principle to last of things
or as Ideal-Form to utter Lack: but this subject we postpone.